The Occult Family Physician: Now Available!

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This fairly long book is a tome of medical and herbal lore which combines multiple distinct elements of literature into one semi-condensed volume. Often, in the 19th century, the Materia Medica was separate from social tracts or only contained herbs and their uses or recipes. This contains all of the above, as well as dietary content, all from the backdrop of the botanic method, which stressed proper living, "natural" remedies, and was altogether an objective improvement on the prior era of mercury based medicine, antimonial injections into wounds, and other pseudo-alchemical snake oil.

It is interesting to note that by this time, while lobelia (formerly heralded as a sort of cure-all) was continued in use for many complaints, it had lost ground against chamomile, st johns wort, artemesia absinthium, and a few other species which were rising in prominence.

Of interest as well here is a short tract against onanism ("self pollution"!) and material involving spiritism.

307 pages.

Fifteen Lectures on Medical Botany: Now Available!

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The 1830s represent an interesting period in medical history in which the old mercury and leeches of the system of Galen were replaced by botanical and "simples"-based medical practice until the era of fully "rational" chemical and biological science began a half century later. The essential premise here is that former medical practice was dangerous (objectively true) and botanical treatment superior and more "godly" (debatable.) What I do not debate is that administering lobelia or capsicum is "probably" safer than dosing people up on mercury, antimony, or dangerously powerful emetics.

186 pages.

Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants: Now Available!

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This excellent book is full length and contains a laundry list of fascinating legend and folklore about botanical species- it specifically dwells a lot on Greco-Roman, Arthurian, and then modern (largely European, sometimes American) lore. It is of great interest noting how humans have lopsidedly created stories about some species so much more than others; the rose, the oak, and maize especially.

It's hard to single out a story that was my own favorite because there are so many; Saint Patrick of course comes to mind; the explanatory story of how he converted Ireland involves explaining the trinity using a shamrock as opposed to conversion by force (I like the fictional, botanical account better.)

266 pages.

American Medicinal Leaves and Herbs: Now Available!

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This interesting little work is another of the botanically important circulations produced at the dawn of the 20th century by the US Department of Agriculture- it is fully illustrated by Rita Metzner, whose Instagram you can see here. It lists over 30 species of note that grow within the region of the continental United States- mostly native plant life, with a few European garden escapees. The number of uses is quite large; from expectorants and purgatives to general balms. That is all secondary however as the work was mainly meant for farmers and rural dwellers to be able to identify and exploit species in order to prevent continued US reliance on imports of plant material which were used within a clinical setting as medicine in an era before modern standards and preparations.

67 pages.

American Medicinal Flowers: Now Available!

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This short bulletin is a handy little guide to North American species wild-gathered for medicinal purposes in its era. It has been illustrated by Rita Metzner because my own renditions would not be appropriate for a work meant to be roughly a short field guide. I've released a couple of these agricultural pieces before by the same author and have another lined up being edited as we speak.

The species are common; datura, elder, raspberries, and so forth; for each a basic description of usage is given- it should be noted that the apothecarian recipes derived from such herbal material are still in use in folk medicine, homeopathy, and in the third world.

29 pages.

General Update Time!

Alright literary world!

It's been a few weeks with nothing to post here; I have been taking a slight vacation from editing work to focus on some music. In a few weeks though I may be able to complete a short LH Steiner (not Rudolf Steiner!) manuscript and I do have a couple dozen more works lined up and ready to go.

The other reason for this long-ish hiatus? Spring is here, I need to clear brush, plant crops, and build my epic garden. If I do end up re-releasing Fruits of Eden having some additional photographs of plants will be quite good. I am thinking of adding a short, topical section with some basic cooking ideas. I really like buttery, thyme-infused collards.

Regardless, more work to come, just not quite yet! I'll be on vacation from May 4th through almost the end of the month!